After spending a few days on the 2018 last week I have to say I am extremely impressed!
We have a couple new machines and spent time comparing some of our new parts to the stock machine and dial in the new clutch kit for it.
The motor is extremely smooth and responsive. What really works excellent is the clutches with bearing in the drive clutch. The way the belt sits nice and high in the driven clutch and then tight on the drive clutch makes taking off so smooth and powerful. It's night and day over 2017 even. This is because you are simply starting out in a lower ratio. The combination of this new motor and clutching is what really makes the sled so much better. After riding the 18 a lot, I jumped on a stock 17 model for a bit, and I couldn't get back on the 18 model fast enough. Night and day difference in throttle response and low end power.
We kept one machine stock and the other we had our Promax Induction hood installed. We also started out with our head and titanium muffler the first day. The billet head kit with a normal hemi style pocket and 14:1 ratio produced a very noticeable gain in throttle response power. You could easy feel the difference. The stock clutching works decent, but was still a bit lazy in the backshift department. With the stiffer spring and compound radius helix, the response was much more instantaneous when your on and off the throttle. We were running our ProMag weights at 73 grams at this point. So the head was doing what it should, at 9500' elevation and that much weight.
Next we added our pipe mod to the stock pipe, and just like normal, we had to add more weight to the clutch. But the big gain happened when we added our stainless Y pipe along with the pipe mod. The whole combination really came to life at this point. We ended up at 76 grams in the clutch!! And it ate it up like nothing, and that at 9000-10000 feet! This bolt on package really made such a big difference. It felt much stronger than a 800 at this point. The low end grunt is strong, and throttle response was insanely quick. It easily puts a few lengths instantly on the stock machine with a steady pull away. Plus with the drop in weight from the muffler and hood, the front end was noticeably lighter. The nose would come up much easier especially with the extra power.
The new hood and side panels come off and on in seconds. There is one screw in the front, so I guess you do need to remove that for the hood, so a minute or two I guess. But the fit and finish in just perfect. The side panels fit great and come off and on easily.
Our new ProMax Induction Hood is clean and effective. 7 lbs lighter too. Cold air is drawn from the front near the shock areas on the side, and then on top behind the windshield. All vents are covered with frogskins to keep the snow and moisture out and prevent snow from icing up. The dash is very clean and effective.
My only complaint would be the ski's. Not super fond of the long leading front side of the ski. Slp Mohawks are going on right away.
If you are looking for a new machine, the new Cat is a home run in my book. New motor is excellent, new clutches excellent, new hood and panels excellent. A very very big improvement over the previous M8000. It's a great stock machine and already proving that it's easy to make it even better. Next up, 950 big bore. We will keep you posted.
http://www.bd-xtreme.com/index.php?...d_shop=&id_employee=3&theme=&theme_font=font7
We have a couple new machines and spent time comparing some of our new parts to the stock machine and dial in the new clutch kit for it.
The motor is extremely smooth and responsive. What really works excellent is the clutches with bearing in the drive clutch. The way the belt sits nice and high in the driven clutch and then tight on the drive clutch makes taking off so smooth and powerful. It's night and day over 2017 even. This is because you are simply starting out in a lower ratio. The combination of this new motor and clutching is what really makes the sled so much better. After riding the 18 a lot, I jumped on a stock 17 model for a bit, and I couldn't get back on the 18 model fast enough. Night and day difference in throttle response and low end power.
We kept one machine stock and the other we had our Promax Induction hood installed. We also started out with our head and titanium muffler the first day. The billet head kit with a normal hemi style pocket and 14:1 ratio produced a very noticeable gain in throttle response power. You could easy feel the difference. The stock clutching works decent, but was still a bit lazy in the backshift department. With the stiffer spring and compound radius helix, the response was much more instantaneous when your on and off the throttle. We were running our ProMag weights at 73 grams at this point. So the head was doing what it should, at 9500' elevation and that much weight.
Next we added our pipe mod to the stock pipe, and just like normal, we had to add more weight to the clutch. But the big gain happened when we added our stainless Y pipe along with the pipe mod. The whole combination really came to life at this point. We ended up at 76 grams in the clutch!! And it ate it up like nothing, and that at 9000-10000 feet! This bolt on package really made such a big difference. It felt much stronger than a 800 at this point. The low end grunt is strong, and throttle response was insanely quick. It easily puts a few lengths instantly on the stock machine with a steady pull away. Plus with the drop in weight from the muffler and hood, the front end was noticeably lighter. The nose would come up much easier especially with the extra power.
The new hood and side panels come off and on in seconds. There is one screw in the front, so I guess you do need to remove that for the hood, so a minute or two I guess. But the fit and finish in just perfect. The side panels fit great and come off and on easily.
Our new ProMax Induction Hood is clean and effective. 7 lbs lighter too. Cold air is drawn from the front near the shock areas on the side, and then on top behind the windshield. All vents are covered with frogskins to keep the snow and moisture out and prevent snow from icing up. The dash is very clean and effective.
My only complaint would be the ski's. Not super fond of the long leading front side of the ski. Slp Mohawks are going on right away.
If you are looking for a new machine, the new Cat is a home run in my book. New motor is excellent, new clutches excellent, new hood and panels excellent. A very very big improvement over the previous M8000. It's a great stock machine and already proving that it's easy to make it even better. Next up, 950 big bore. We will keep you posted.
http://www.bd-xtreme.com/index.php?...d_shop=&id_employee=3&theme=&theme_font=font7
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